swan lake alberta oddly quiet

[bruce44]

i went fishing at swan lake alberta by debolt. We started at three and left at ten and the whole time there was not 1 rise. I think the fish have gone on a non feeding phase or they are dying. When we paddled around we found we saw alot of dead rainbows the largest one at least 7 lbs so just warning you guys not to waste your time there. I think the heat and lowered water levels are killing them

[Wulfespirit]

I noticed that fishing at many of the stocked trout lakes in the Edmonton area went on a massive slowdown about 2 weeks ago. I assumed the heat wave we had warmed up the water enough to slow them down a fair amount. Not sure if its a summerkill in progress here as I haven't seen any dead ones but if you have.. yeah.. that's rough.

[troutpirate]

the dog days of august. i dont like them but im not afraid of them.
try these for trout lakes
fish a deeper colder lake if you can
avoid warm shallow winterkill prone lakes
fish at dawn when the water temp. is the lowest for the day
fish lower in the water column
fish the ugly days (weather)
lower your expectations dont be dissapointed if you dont equal your june catch

serves me well

[fishman]

Originally Posted by bruce44

i went fishing at swan lake alberta by debolt. We started at three and left at ten and the whole time there was not 1 rise. I think the fish have gone on a non feeding phase or they are dying. When we paddled around we found we saw alot of dead rainbows the largest one at least 7 lbs so just warning you guys not to waste your time there. I think the heat and lowered water levels are killing them

Swan Lake fish have a lot of stress to deal with over the year, first of all the air quality in the winter even though they aerate the lake the O2 level is still putting stress on the fish..........Second thing is they try to spawn and cannot which occurs more stress....third is blue algae and dropping water levels and warm water temperatures which even puts more stress on them.....i do not fish this lake from the middle of june until septemeber just because of that......sept the fishing will pick up and water will clear up

[bruce44]

yeah when we saw that 7 pounder i joked around to my friend saying we should hold it up and pretend its ours when we tried to grab it by the fin it ripped off kinda gross

[fishman]

Originally Posted by bruce44

yeah when we saw that 7 pounder i joked around to my friend saying we should hold it up and pretend its ours when we tried to grab it by the fin it ripped off kinda gross

The dead fish might not be summer kill it just might be that the fish was caught and released and in the hot weather it took all it's life out of it, when the water gets that hot and playing a fish they can die very easy,especially in a lake with deepest water is 18 feet, water would be like a bathtub, ibet surface temp would be close to 80 degrees f

[karrcreek]

I fished swan for about 4 hrs yesterday and the only thing I could catch was the new stockers and they were covered with those parasite bumps, never seen so many parasites on such small fish before, lake was like glass and no risers, not looking good for those fish in there